I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up

[Axel Slingerland]

Remember this?

I am reminded of that often. I've fallen several times in just the last few months. Normally, I can use my "Elevator Chair" as I call it to get up. But the last two times, there's been some wreckage and I needed help. So my son called 911. At first, I thought I broke my foot or something, as I heard (and felt) a loud snap as I went down. But it turned out I did not break it, but it was quite messed up it developed the weirdest bruise I've ever seen, it started on the top of #2 toe, wrapped around my foot and up my leg to just below my knee.


Sorry for the terrible photo... The day after I took that photo, it was worse. Prior to that, I thought Deep Purple was a rock and roll band.

For about the last month if I walked at all, it was using my wheelchair as a walker. But then, three days ago, just as my leg was starting feel normal, I fell again. That was something like the sixth or seventh time I fell since I moved here. So now, my left leg looks I used a cheese grater on it, and my right arm is a mess. Then during the patchup, one of the EMT's, who had been here before, made a comment I am starting to agree with...

"Perhaps it time for you to consider Assisted Living."

I just said "I can't. Who would take care of my son?"

So they gave a couple of phone numbers to call, and if I am "Win the Lottery Lucky", we might be able to get an Assisted Living apartment somewhere. But after 48 days in Vineyard Post Acute in Petaluma, which wasn't bad, but I do not want to rely on their meal plans. Half the time I was eating dry PBJs, because what they made would have made me ill. That's an aftermath of Colon Cancer. Two and a half feet less Colon. The told me that if I could not eat a meal, that I could order a burger, a ham or turkey sandwich or a small pizza. The number of times that I actually got to do that was negligible. No wonder I lost 80 pounds in those 96 days. Most of the time it was a burger, but if not, it was grilled cheese sandwiched that reminded me of my sister's "Gubmint Cheez" sandwiches. The closest thing to that would be Velveeta cheese, a "pasteurized prepared cheese product" not considered to be real cheese by the FDA...

Cross your fingers for me y'all.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Falling is no fun at all when we get older, @Axel Slingerland , and I can relate to how you are feeling insecure about walking. Last summer, I was out working in the yard and garden, and fell several times, just because I tripped on some little root that should never bother anyone, and once I even went head over heels backwards when I was in the gardening chair and leaned the wrong way.
Now, I try to be very careful to be looking before i step anywhere outside, and don’t go where i think I might have trouble, because almost everything is a land mine for me nowadays. Sometimes, I use a walking stick to help balance.

The vibration plate does help my balance, because it make me use those muscles to keep my balance when i am standing on it. since I got it, I do not shuffle quite as bad as I did before, either.
Hoping that you start feeling better soon, and that a safer place for you to live might be forthcoming, too. It sounded like the EMT thought you might be able to have a place for both yourself and your son, so that would be a good thing.

 

[Don Alaska]

Sorry you are having a tough time @Axel Slingerland. I have fallen several times in my life, but the worst involved ladders. I have fallen a few times since my "big fall", but nothing serious. My wife worries constantly about me falling though. Do they have the multi-level assisted living facilities in your area? In those you can begin with almost totally independent living and progress to more dependence as your disabilities worsen. You may have to change buildings, but your address would stay the same.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

For me, that "big fall" was when I was still in the hospital up in Petaluma. It was about a month after I got there, and had finally started the "Aggressive PT" they told me about at the last hospital, that turned out to be about 20 minutes of them strapping my wheelchair to this machine that was a very expensive exercise bike. But I had been up walking a few steps using my chair as a walker. So my Nurse came in one night just as I was about to slide out of bed into the chair to go see if anyone was using that "bike". She told me flat out, "You are not allowed to get out of bed unassisted."

That kind of bugged me. Mr. Free Spirit being tied to a bed for about 75 days at that point. So later, I got up anyway. I took care about it. I used my back scratcher to pull my chair up next to the bed, I made sure the roll bars were secure, etc. But when I got up, I only stayed up about 2 seconds. I fell strait backwards, landed on my back and slammed my head into the wall by the room door. It left a round dent in it that reminded me of the Death Star in Star Wars.

A CNA was all the way at the other end of the hallway and he heard that and came running. The Nurse read me the riot act for getting out of bed without help. I didn't do it again. And when I finally checked out, I wrote in tiny letters in that dent "That's no Moon! It's a Space Station!"

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I'm starting to get very frustrated. I just fell again. I missed getting into my wheelchair because I had to pee. Then after the Fire Department came and got me back into my wheelchair, I almost fell again trying to get back into my desk chair.

Usually I can walk ok with my wheelchair. But the last two falls messed my left knee up. Now it's stiff and weak, and is very sore. Tomorrow I have an appointment with Medi-Cal to see what is covered in the way of Assisted Living. But even if I qualify, the nearest place up in Delano, 35 miles north. An no room for my son, so no that won't work.

As I think I said I don't want to do the Skilled Nursing type thing, I would like to keep some of my independence and dignity, and I need showers now and then. When I had Covid, all three hospitals I was in had CNAs give me a bath in the bed, but in 96 days, in three different hospitals, I didn't get a single shower. They did wash my hair once, but with no brush to brush it with, it turned into a 4" hairball. Thus I lost my long hair that Cindy liked.

But I can't do it alone anymore. I need help. I hired a new IHSS worker last week, but he flaked after one day. He seemed a little distracted, and after the last girl's emo problems, it's just as well. I'm not up to playing babysitter. A cute little Senorita that was nice to talk to once in awhile was one thing, but a whacky guy? Nope, Not doin' it.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I think that you explained about why your son needs to live with you, but i don’t remember exactly what the situation was, can you tell us about this again, please, @Axel Slingerland ?
If none of the assisted living places will allow him to be with you, and he can’t be on his own, then it does seem like this is going to be a difficult thing for you to find a safer place to live and still have him living with you.
I was thinking that he was there just to take care of you, but I think you had mentioned that he has health issues of some kind also, at some point. They have the subsidized housing apartments, but those would not have the medical assistance that you are needing to have because of the falling issues.
It is good that you have the appointment with Medi-Cal, so maybe once you are able to explain everything to them, they can recommend something that will work for both of you.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

He has Cerebral Palsy. But it's not just about us finding assisted living together, but a place that won't kick him to the curb when checkout time comes for me. He cannot survive alone.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

How did the visit with Medi-Cal about an assisted living place work out , @Axel Slingerland ? Did they have a suggestions of what might work for both you and your son ?

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Well, basically all they did on that call was sign us up for Enhanced Care Management (ECM), but that is just to get the ball rolling. Once we're approved, and they've already said that we qualify, they said they could help us with finding actual Low Income Housing and we can take Uber to appointments instead of driving. That might save us a ton of money. The Management of our building told us our apartment was Low Income Housing but it is actually (so-called) Affordable Housing, and at $1,359 a month, it is hardly affordable. And of course gas, food and just about everything else has gone up again.

In that last fall I got a major scrap on my leg, the FD cleaned it up and bandaged it. They said to change the bandage every day. That went fine the first day. But on the second day, the bandage wouldn't come off as it is embedded in the scab. I looked up tips on how to get "Stubborn Scabs" to come off, none of them worked. So I called my Insurance's Dial a Nurse, and the Nurse said if it won't come off, do not rip it off (You'll be sorry...) and leave it alone for a day or two and it will come off on it's own. Maybe not all at once, but it will come off eventually.

And it is... But I can tell the antibiotics I've been on the whole time did nothing, as I can clearly see it is very infected. And it is now about 1/3 bigger than my other leg. This might be worthy of braving the heat to go see the Doc...

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Hesitating to put a like on this. It is wonderful that it sounds like the housing situation will likely get better for both of you, but terrible that your scrape is so infected. Can you soak it with some alcohol maybe that would help loosen the bandage so you can get it off ? Or maybe soak it with water diluted with a little bit of the isopropyl alcohol, since it will burn if you use it straight ?
If you can put some aloe vera gel on it, that will help it to heal up, and also help the infection situation once you can soak the bandage off and get the wound clean.

They should have used bandages with that non-stick surface so you would be able to get them off easier. I remember having to keep my leg cleaned when I had the bad broken leg, and it was no fun !
I had my leg stomped by a horse, and it popped the lower leg almost in half, so I had bone splinters and dirt all over inside and a wound that went clear across the inside of my calf.
They could not even put a cast on it until the outside was healed up, so the leg was held together by big steel pins for the first few months, and I had to clean it every day and bandage it until it had healed up.

It sounds like you definitely need to at least call the doctor and have a phone consultation so she can decide if you need to come in, or she can prescribe something for you to clean the wound better and stop the infection and swelling.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Hesitating to put a like on this.

I know what you mean. I always think about that too.

They should have used bandages with that non-stick surface so you would be able to get them off easier.

Yeah! And you would think I would know I should have replaced that stuff right after the bleeding stopped.

 

[Don Alaska]

I am sure you know many, but here is one on Amazon. Telfa is the principal hospital and ER brand, but it is more expensive.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I personally don't know about medical stuff, but Cindy did. She was going to Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine to become a Physician's Assistant (PA) but she had health problems that forced her out. About 10 years later, one night after after we had been together for a few years, I woke up at 4:00a and she was watching TV. I asked what she was watching. "Shhh... I'm watching Brain Surgery." I put my pillow over my head and went back to sleep.

She was known to many of the Eureka store employees as "The Super Shopper". She could spot a deal a mile away. And she never bought one of anything. I have a big box sitting in my living room (40"x20"x30") that is full of all sorts of medical supplies that she either bought, got from the home health nurse after my colon cancer surgery, or got free at health fairs at the hospital.

I think that stuff is better than what the FD EMTs had... But I'm just speculating. Either way, it's what I have and I'll use it. Ya cain't beat the price...

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Well, yesterday I learned something about hiring IHSS workers. Cindy always met people at Starbucks over coffee. That worked fine for her with our house in Eureka. That is until her "Terminal Spenditis" and hoarding got out of control. She had been married to a very abusive guy who died the year before we met, who never let her do anything. I swore to myself that I would never tell her no. After she nearly bankrupted us I finally had to do so. Her hoarding stuffed our house full of stuff she had bought, but rarely, if ever, even bothered to open. We hired two IHSS workers who both quit after seeing the house.

A lot of that stuff is still in the original packaging (and some is not) sitting in the living room and 3rd bedroom of our apartment now. After I did nearly the same thing, I met someone at Denny's for an interview instead of Starbucks, I hired a woman to essentially be our housekeeper. I told her it was an easy job (for someone who can stand up and do it, which I can't do anymore), clean the kitchen, bathrooms, do a little shopping once in a while, drive us to appointments, and help me sort Cindy's stuff.

She said she wanted the job. So I went through the process to hire her. She came to work at the time we had agreed on, and took a look around at all the boxes stacked half way to the ceiling, which kind of looked like a store warehouse, and decided it would be too much work and left.

I have a woman coming over today for an interview here, so I can show her what she would be getting into, up front. Ever since I started falling a lot more (four times in the last two months, eight for the year), my left leg is messed up and I can barely stand up to get out of bed, or switch from my desk chair to my wheelchair, and the closest thing to cooking I can do now is making a pan of Ore-Ida Instant Potatoes, which all you have to do to make them is add boiling water and stir. Getting in and out of the car is a real treat now too. So I need help. This lady was recommended by one of the EMT's who came to scrape me up off the floor a few weeks ago. She seemed quite taken with this lady, saying she works for her grandmother. So I has me fingers crossed...

 

[Axel Slingerland]

She seemed like a nice lady. Young enough to still be spry, old enough (and well educated enough) to have common sense. (When had a woman in her late 20's in Eureka that I noticed was about to clean inside our refrigerator with bleach, just in time to stop her.) But while she said she was interested, she would have to think about and go over her schedule that was on her laptop at home.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Well, she never called me back, so I'm back to going the IHSS Workers list.

Anyway, as you may recall, I fell twice and sprained my left ankle and knee. Those two falls were in August, and even though the pain in my knee went away after my Occiptal Nerve Block (ONB) on October 2nd, that is starting to wear off and I'm finding that my knee is still mucked up a bit. So I went to see my Doc and he says the problem is from a Bone Contusion. In other words, I bruised the bone in the calf of my left leg. The swelling has finally gone down, but with the ONB wearing off, the pain is returning. So now I am almost back to sitting in the chair instead of pushing. In another week or two I'll be seriously hurting again.

But as far as falling goes, I've learned a couple of valuable lessons. The last two falls were from my tying to sit down in the chair and it rolled away. So now when I get up I try to remember to put the brakes on. And when I go to sit, I grab it by the bars on each armrest, and pull the chair towards me. The fall before those two was from sliding off the edge of my bed. The mattress is wider than the frame, so I have to keep pulling the frame away from the wall, and push my mattress towards it, making the edge of the bed have more stability. That got tiresome, as every time I sit down on the bed, the frame would move. So I went to a lumber yard and got two pieces of scrap 2"x8" board. The guy was nice enough to cut them into 2 10" long blocks for me. I put them behind the bed and the frame can't move any more...

I have not fallen again since late August!

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Falling is a worrisome thing nowadays, and I completely understand how you are trying to avoid it happening again, @Axel Slingerland . My balance is not good anymore either, and I have to watch every little step I take, and try to make sure I am doing something that might cause me to fall and be stuck on the ground.
After having that happen several times last year, I have been pretty cautious this year, but that means I did not spend nearly as much time outside as i would have liked to do, either. Walking is pretty much a back and forth through the house things, where the floors are even and flat, as opposed to the little dips and bumps that are how our yard is.

I just use dmso when I need something for my knee or back pain, and it seems to work as good as regular aspirin or any of the NSAIDS, which I am not supposed to use, in any case.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I tried dmso once and it seemed like it didn't do much. I asked my Doc about and she told me to stay away from it. When I asked why, she said it was too risky...

But you're right about falling. So if I am not using a walker or wheelchair, I'm back to my "Take two steps, grab something solid, take two steps, grab something solid" thing I did for years when all I had was a walker...

 

[Marie Mallory]

Remember this?

I am reminded of that often. I've fallen several times in just the last few months. Normally, I can use my "Elevator Chair" as I call it to get up. But the last two times, there's been some wreckage and I needed help. So my son called 911. At first, I thought I broke my foot or something, as I heard (and felt) a loud snap as I went down. But it turned out I did not break it, but it was quite messed up it developed the weirdest bruise I've ever seen, it started on the top of #2 toe, wrapped around my foot and up my leg to just below my knee.

View attachment 1030
Sorry for the terrible photo... The day after I took that photo, it was worse. Prior to that, I thought Deep Purple was a rock and roll band.

For about the last month if I walked at all, it was using my wheelchair as a walker. But then, three days ago, just as my leg was starting feel normal, I fell again. That was something like the sixth or seventh time I fell since I moved here. So now, my left leg looks I used a cheese grater on it, and my right arm is a mess. Then during the patchup, one of the EMT's, who had been here before, made a comment I am starting to agree with...

"Perhaps it time for you to consider Assisted Living."

I just said "I can't. Who would take care of my son?"

So they gave a couple of phone numbers to call, and if I am "Win the Lottery Lucky", we might be able to get an Assisted Living apartment somewhere. But after 48 days in Vineyard Post Acute in Petaluma, which wasn't bad, but

I didn't realize how old this post was,

 

[Don Alaska]

I tried dmso once and it seemed like it didn't do much. I asked my Doc about and she told me to stay away from it. When I asked why, she said it was too risky...

But you're right about falling. So if I am not using a walker or wheelchair, I'm back to my "Take two steps, grab something solid, take two steps, grab something solid" thing I did for years when all I had was a walker...

As far as I know, DMSO is safe when applied occasionally to the skin. @Yvonne Smith swears it helps her pain. When I tried it when I had my episodes of migrating pain of np known cause, I tried it on my hands and, like you, I saw little of no effect. I has been used on horses with tendonitis and seems to be effective there, so perhaps it is system-specific, benefitting some people but not everyone. It is listed as a prescriptible drug for some conditions. If you recall the case some years ago whena cancer patient became comatose and when brough to the ER, the ER staff got sick while treating the patient. That was traced to DMSO use orally by the patient, and when she was administered oxygen, the DMSO (Dimethylsulfoxide) became Dimethylsulfate (DMSO4) a known nerve gas. That is the assumption by the forensic investigators, but they were unable to replicate the phenomenon in the lab. DMSO4 was isolated from the patient's tissues however, and she was taking very large doses of the drug orally to try to cure her cancer.. Normally, DMSO is converted by the liver to DMSO2, which is very harmless even in large amounts.

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/dmso-uses-and-risks